ABSTRACT
This work was carried out on Zaraibi kids to investigate the effect of different suckling systems on kids' performance and health status during the suckling period. Forty Zaraibi does (three successive lactations) were selected from El-Serw Station herd and divided into four groups, considering age, milk yield and litter size. Born kids were kept with their dams till being 13 weeks old (free natural suckling, G1). Kids in G2, were separated from their dams one week after birth to be raised artificially on goat's milk. G3 artificially suckled mixed milk (50% goat milk: 50% cow milk) while G4 suckled 100% cow milk. The obtained data indicate that daily consumption of milk was significantly affected during the first weeks (2nd and 4th weeks) where the highest value was recorded with G1 (405 and 553 ml) while the lowest value was recorded with G4 (345 and 483 ml), respectively. Milk consumption by Zaraibi kids was approximately similar for the 4 groups within the period from 6th to the 8th weeks of lactation, but it was noticeably reduced with the artificial suckling group during the last weeks. In addition, some kids (ranged from 3 to 5 ) of those artificially suckled groups stopped suckling during the last two weeks, without any adverse effect on their weaning weight. Weaning weight of quadruplets kids were heavier with artificial suckling (being 10.0, 9.80 and 9.63 kg in G2, G3 and G4, respectively) than natural suckling (9.35 kg). Similarly, the weaning weight of triplet kids was better for the three groups suckled artificially expressed as G2, G3 and G4 (being 10.14, 9.90 and 9.70kg, respectively) compared with G1 (natural suckling, 9.52 kg). The mortality rates were  8.70, 9.09, 13.04 and 17.39 % for G1, G2, G3 and G4, respectively. The cases of mortality recorded the highest estimate among triplet kids and quadruplets kids especially during the first weeks of suckling especially in G4. Generally, both groups of natural suckling (G1) and artificial suckling on goats milk (G2) had reduction in incidence of bloat (indigestion) and diarrhea (digestive disturbances), thus showed less mortality rate among kids.
Accordingly, artificial rearing seems a good alternative for young kids especially for those born twins and more or when early weaning is demand. However, in case of economics push to save goat milk and replace it with cow milk, more studies are needed since results showed high mortality in kids when using it for suckling.